Investigating the effects of gamification-enhanced flipped learning on undergraduate students’ behavioral and cognitive engagement

ABSTRACT

In recent years, flipped learning has attracted much attention around the world. This instructional approach is appealing because it can free up class time for knowledge application activities with help from the instructor and peers. However, its implementation can be fraught with challenges. Student disengagement in out-of-class activities, for example, is one of the major challenges of flipped learning. The purpose of this study is to examine whether gamification can enhance student engagement in a flipped course. A comparison study was conducted, involving two classes of undergraduate students in an Information Management course. The results indicated that students in the gamification-enhanced flipped learning group (n?=?48) were more likely to complete the pre-class and post-class activities on time than those in the non-gamified flipped learning group (n?=?48). Students in the gamification-enhanced flipped learning group also produced higher quality artifacts than the non-gamified flipped learning group in the pre-class thinking activities. Moreover, students in the gamification-enhanced flipped learning group scored significantly higher in the post-course test than did their non-gamified counterparts.     

The relationship between teacher value orientations and engagement in professional learning communities

The development of teacher professional learning communities (PLC) has attracted growing attention among practitioners, policy-makers and researchers. The aims of this study were to identify typologies of professional learning teams based on measures of professional learning engagement, and assess their linkages with teachers’ value orientations. Based on data obtained from 408 professional learning teams in Singapore schools, cluster analysis identified three types of professional learning teams: highly engaged, moderately engaged and less engaged. These three profiles differ mainly in terms of level of endorsement for the four measures of professional learning engagement (collective focus on student learning, collaborative learning, reflective dialogue and shared values and vision). Results revealed that highly engaged professional learning teams reported the highest levels of endorsement for all four engagement measures. Teachers among the learning teams in the highly engaged profile reported a significantly higher level of uncertainty avoidance than those in the moderately engaged and less engaged profiles. Teachers in the less engaged profile also reported a significantly higher level of power distance than those in the highly engaged teams. Multinomial logistic regression analysis found that team power distance and team uncertainty avoidance were significant predictors of engagement profile membership. The implications for fostering effective teacher development through more systematic support of PLC are discussed.     

Normalizing literary responses in the teacher education classroom

In this essay, the authors present analyses of data emerging from a study of a classroom of pre‐service English language arts teachers' readings of a young adult novel that challenged normative sexuality stereotypes. They argue that when literary fictions are included within teacher education ‘methods’ courses, the possibility that literature might support generative learning is eroded by the normative structures of teacher education, particularly those pedagogical beliefs and practices that separate discourses of experience from discourses of knowledge. The authors offer a brief overview of studies of human consciousness, with particular attention to how literary experiences can contribute to its development. They suggest that the identities that co‐emerge with conscious awareness are structured by normalizing discourses instantiated within teacher education methods courses. The essay concludes with a discussion of how the conscious awareness of beginning English teachers might be more expansively developed within pre‐service teacher education.     

Cultivating sustained teachers’ professional learning within a centralised education system

This study investigates how sustained professional learning for teachers within a centralised system was cultivated. Specifically, the sustained professional learning was initiated by officers from the headquarters (HQ) and involved interested teachers across schools in Singapore. Qualitative instruments were used to collect and analyse the data in examining the partnerships perceived by the participants. The enablers responsible to bring about sustained professional learning are proposed. A contribution of this study is to clarify how resources in the HQ and its schools can be bridged. Deliberate bridging of resources is critical particularly at the initial stage of the partnerships. This bridging is made possible through dedicated appointed champions. The appointed champions are passionate about the educational innovations and are willing to invest their time to understand the teachers’ needs. This paper argues that the enablers can offer opportunities for lateral networks to be forged within a hierarchical system.     

Structuring asynchronous discussion groups: Comparing scripting by assigning roles with regulation by cross-age peer tutors

The present study focuses on comparing the impact of role assignment and cross-age peer tutors on students' level of knowledge construction in 15 asynchronous discussion groups of nine students each in a first-year university course (N = 135). Content analysis was applied to analyse the level of knowledge construction in students' online postings. The results indicated that students in the tutor-supported discussions reached significantly higher levels of knowledge construction as compared to students in the role-supported group. These findings underline the value of regulation by cross-age peer tutors to foster freshmen's knowledge construction processes.     

Paint-by-Number Teachers and Cookie-Cutter Students: The Unintended Effects of High-Stakes Testing on the Education of Gifted Students

This study examined the utility of the Gifted Composite (GC) formula derived from selected subtests on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition (SB5) for evaluating intellectual giftedness. A sample of 52 children were administered both the SB5 and Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement, Third Edition (WJ-III ACH). The ability of the Full-Scale IQ (FSIQ) and the GC to predict reading and math achievement were compared. Though both the FSIQ and GC significantly predicted standardized achievement test scores, the FSIQ explained more of the variance. Sequential regression analyses suggested that the SB5 factor scores preformed differently in their contribution of unique variance to the predictions. The inclusion of working memory scores in the calculation of the FSIQ appears to account for the difference in predictions between the FSIQ and GC for reading but not math skills.     

Examining the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relation between responsibilities and career aspiration of vice-principals

This article reports a study designed to examine the mediating effect of vice-principals’ job satisfaction on the relation between their responsibility roles and career aspirations. Based on a Hong Kong data set, the study confirmed that responsibilities had both a direct effect and an indirect effect on career aspiration; the latter was mediated by job satisfaction. When specific responsibility dimensions were being considered, the two dimensions of leader and teacher growth and development, and teaching, learning, and curriculum were found to have an effect on job satisfaction, which in turn, influenced career aspiration. The dimension of Resource Management did not link to job satisfaction, it was however a predictor for career aspiration. Implications of the findings were discussed.     

Are we looking through the same lens? Principal recruitment and selection

This article reports a study designed to identify the factors that both hiring bodies and applicants believe are most important when making decisions about principal selection, appointment and acceptance. Based on a quantitative study involving the four main groups of players in the principal selection process, we confirmed a four-factor structure. In order of importance the four factors were, Generic Managerial Skills, Communication and Presentation Skills, Experience and Credence, and Religious Affiliation and External Connection. The fourth factor is rarely mentioned in the literature. The findings indicate a shift in the role expectation of principals from educational leaders to administrative managers. Findings also challenge the use of interviews as the sole principal selection mechanism.